T³ - Transforming Teaching through Technology.

In my previous post I wrote about digital literacies, how they are changing communication and the importance of teaching them to our students if we want them to be fully functional citizens. Some teachers try to do this – and their effort is valuable – by using computers or new technologies in the classroom. But this alone is not enough. The idea is that technology not only enhances our teaching but rather transforms it. Likewise, we must take into account other primitive forms of knowledge besides the technological – pedagogical and content knowledge. Those ideas are described in two models for understanding technology integration: SAMR and TPACK.

The SAMR model, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, provides a framework to answer the question of what types of technology use would have greater or lesser effects upon student learning through four levels:

Substitution: Technology is used as a direct substitute for what you might do already, with no functional change.

• Augmentation: Technology is a direct substitute, but there is functional improvement over what you did without the technology.
• Modification: Technology allows you to significantly redesign the task.
• Redefinition: Technology allows you to do what was previously not possible.
• Substitution and Augmentation enhance our teaching; Modification and Redefinition transform it.

In this video you will find a useful analogy between this model and Starbucks, which may help to understand SAMR better.

The TPACK model looks at the collaboration between technology, pedagogy, and content and emphasizes the new kinds of knowledge that lie at the intersections between them, especially at the intersection of all three circles: the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). Again, this short video may be helpful to grasp the idea of the model.

I consider these two models highly valuable; they make us realize that using videos, a computer or other technological devices or software is not enough. We should not forget that we are teaching a language, the way in which we should teach it, and how technology can help us transform our tasks to benefit learning.

If you are interested in the topic, I suggest you to read this PDF file that showcases some of the ways the SAMR model can be applied in different curricular areas.